Heat sweep a product of depth, cohesion

It was a challenge so soft that it did not even require Dwyane Wade or anything close to the best of the Heat for Sunday's sweep-completing 88-77 victory.

For their next act, the Bucks will now implode, with Monta Ellis, Brandon Jennings and J.J. Redick all headed to free agency, a gone-today, gone-tomorrow approach each seemed to carry through these past eight days, Jennings particularly awful Sunday, Ellis seemingly auditioning for his next paycheck.

For the Heat, the meat of the playoffs is about to arrive, Chicago Bulls likely next, followed possibly by the New York Knicks and then perhaps the San Antonio Spurs, teams that actually finished the season with winning records.

"We're going to start to feel it," forward Shane Battier said, no disrespect to the Bucks.

But that doesn't mean there wasn't meaning Sunday at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.

What this sweep showed, just as last season's championship showed, is that you can never have too much.

And that sometimes, too much is just enough, no matter what David Stern and, apparently, an overwhelming majority of the NBA Board of Governors seem to think.

Or did you fail to notice how trying to do it all eventually did in James Harden and the Rockets on Saturday night?

How with Russell Westbrook out, the Thunder have been reduced to Kevin Durant or bust, their championship chances severely diminished?

Even the way Carmelo Anthony was forced into taking 35 shots for the Knicks in Sunday's overtime loss to the Celtics?

No, this never was about overkill from Pat Riley and Micky Arison, even if that was the outside impression.

It is how the Heat survived Chris Bosh's absence during the middle of last season's playoffs, how they could comfortably go into Sunday without Wade.

"You're talking playing without a future Hall of Famer," forward Udonis Haslem said. "And then you turn around, and there's still two or three Hall of Famers out there."

That would be LeBron James, with his 30 points, eight rebounds and seven assist.

It would be Ray Allen, who, with Sunday's 16 points, finished with the highest average in a playoff series ever by a Heat reserve.

And, who knows, it just might be Bosh, who was a defensive menace Sunday.

"This is why we're all here. We wanted something different for ourselves," Wade said of feeling no pressure to push through his knee issue Sunday.

Among those in attendance Sunday was Stern, who seems to love the television ratings produced by the Heat, yet also has put into place a luxury-tax system designed to not only make it difficult for others to emulate, but for the Heat to even maintain.

Yet is the alternative truly preferable, where the Thunder had to sell off Harden, Durant now left to play as the type of singular star LeBron stood in Cleveland?

Yes, LeBron still has plenty of go-it-alone in him, Sunday pushing through double-teams and the relentlessness of Luc Mbah a Moute (Luol Deng defensively will seem like a vacation after this).

But how much better is it when there also is a support system alongside?

"My teammates," James said, "live for the playoffs. It's just good to have the kind of depth that we have."

It added up to the first playoff sweep of the Heat's Big Three era, even if there wasn't a Big Three on the court.

Which is exactly the point.

The beauty Sunday was not what was offered to the national television audience, a sloppy close to an ugly series.

It was how Wade could sit in his warmups and not feel like he was letting his team down.

The Heat's next series will not start before Saturday. That means at least nine days of rest for Wade.

A year ago, it was Wade fighting through knee pain (the other knee), to help keep the Heat afloat in Bosh's injury absence.

This time it was Wade's teammates stepping up for their co-captain.

Talent overload?

No, just a team capable of making the tough times look not so tough at all.

The Heat emerged from their playoff preseason unscathed.

Soon a healthier Dwyane Wade will be back to do his part, as part of a team even more cohesive and supportive than during last season's championship run.